‘There is no situation so bad that Pete Hegseth can't make infinitely worse’

What’s the story?

Poor old Pete Hegseth had a terrible time during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing this week.

The former Fox News anchor, who is the secretary of defence (or ‘secretary of war’ a he has renamed it') appeared in Congress to discuss the cost of Donald Trump's ongoing war in Iran, which he now estimates has cost the country $37.5 billion.

Grilled by Democrats including Kristen Gilibrand, John Kennedy and Jon Ossoff, Hegseth struggled and sweated as he attempted to defend the president, the war, its cost and his own comments on the conflict.

“You could see the glistening on his face as he was testifying,” says Miles Taylor, US writer and friend of The News Agents.

“And even though he tried to project confidence, you could see there was a man squirming in his chair trying to explain what was very obvious, to senators on both sides, is clearly some kind of stalemate trending toward quagmire.”

His defence department is now asking for an additional $67 billion to continue funding a war Trump, and his administration, have been saying was won since March this year. It is now July and American bombs keep falling, as Iranian forces fire back.

During Hegseth’s appearance, Democrat senator Kristen Gilibrand accused the Trump administration of asking for "unlimited money for bombs when people can't feed their families", with the country hit hard by a cost of living crisis under round two of MAGA leadership.

Hegseth claimed the money was for "the right bombs at the right time to ensure we can deter our adversaries into the future", and said it was a "generational investment".

He was also challenged on his claims made in 2025 that US strikes had "obliterated" Iran's nuclear capabilities, which was Donald Trump's justification for going to war in association with Israel in 2026.

“It sometimes feels that there is no situation so bad that a few well-chosen words by Pete Hegseth can't make infinitely worse,” says Jon Sopel.

A continual test of loyalty for the Trump administration

Miles served as a government official under George W. Bush and for Trump from February-September 2019.

He says there is a "rule of thumb" when any member of a Trump administration appears before Congress, and that's to remember who is looking on.

“Your audience is not the U.S. senators, your audience is not the American people. There is an audience of one because Donald Trump watches these hearings,” Miles says.

“If he can't watch them live he asks for the recordings because he wants to see what his cabinet members say – not because he's keenly interested in the policy nuances they discuss, he wants to know if they are being loyal.

“He wants to make sure his foot soldiers stay in line and don't say things he doesn't want them to say.”

Hegseth was grilled on Trump's claims the war was "over", tying himself up in knots as he tried to say the war had been won by America - while at the same time admitting it had not.

“Hegseth was bending over backwards to not seem at odds with the president, but that's very difficult because you have a president who has repeatedly declared victory in this conflict, and it's clear that there isn't victory.”

Compliment or taunt, Trump is always easy to manipulate

But it’s not just Trump's inner circle that go out of their way to prove themselves subservient to the president, world leaders exploit this to gain political advantage.

Miles says, when he served in Trump's first administration, he witnessed world leaders "praising Donald Trump to manipulate him" - and that his team was acutely aware of this.

“We would see foreign leaders come in, and they would have practiced their compliments to try to get concessions from the president, and then walk out of the Oval Office having gotten those concessions," he says.

“There was an enormous degree of frustration among his team on his ability to be played by foreign leaders.”

But that isn't the only way to get what you want from Trump, getting under his skin also works, and that's the approach Iran has taken during the ongoing US strikes.

It has produced AI videos of Trump and his administration as Lego, along with memes and murals in Tehran – all to mock him.

“These types of things designed to keep him in the conflict, to bog the United States down by taunting the president in continuing a conflict that any other rational observer would say the Iranians should have ended,” Miles says.

He adds the reason Iran did not accept the multi-billion deal offered by Trump when peace talks seemed promising, because it has "patrons" around the world funding the country with their own billions.

"Why wouldn't they take the deal? Well, a more seasoned geopolitical observer would say because they have other patrons: the Chinese, the Russians – nation states that would like to see the United States continue to be bogged down in this conflict," Miles says.

"The Iranians know that they have a button to push for that, and it is taunting Donald Trump.

"And by all accounts, it seems to be working."

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